The AM dial in Dallas-Fort Worth is afire with news that three newspapers no longer get to fly on Obama's planes. (Don't ask me why I listen.) The papers?

The New York Post (makes sense)
The Washington Times (well, duh!)
The Dallas Morning News (Huh!?)

Although the DMN endorsed Obama during the primaries, on the 20th it endorsed McCain for the generals--this, our local bloviators believe, is the reason they're off the plane. Drudge passes on the rumor that they're making room for either (1) a documentary film crew or (2) people whom the right perceives as yes men, such as Maureen Dowd (I'm not making this up!). Also covering this story right now (you'll never guess who!) are Fox News and the Washington Times.

Just thought I'd pass this along before you hear the whines at the watercooler (especially fellow red-staters).

UPDATE. The Christian Science Monitor does some fishing.

Please hear me out.  I like Obama.  I read The Audacity of Hope and loved it.  I voted for him.  But I see a trend that makes me worry.

My wife and I watched the infomercial last night.  We were both sort of bored, since we've been following things so closely and have heard much of it before.  But for me, what stood out the most is that the Obama campaign keeps pressing on with this propagandistic marketing.  I felt this way for a long time, even before I settled on him in March.  That torturingly obvious sunrise logo, the "Vero possimus" gaffe, the suggestion that he is running in part as a metaphor--it made me uncomfortable, but I generally like Obama's politics, so I ignored the silly marketing.

And then the infomercial aired.

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Okay, I get it.  From now until Election Day, everyone on McCain's side is going to try to spook us with forboding images of Obama Nation, or as Pat Buchanan put it, "Obamaland."  A land in which no one can have a gun.  A land that will see the rise of the Culture of Death, part of which will involve fertile females who will repeatedly impregnate themselves, just for the pleasure of aborting fetus after innocent fetus.  A land with a presidential cabinet of black preachers, basketball players and R&B singers.  All our artists will embrace socialist realism and urine-wet Christs.  Our national anthem will be Lionel Ritchie's Smokey Robinson's "Quiet Storm."  We'll give all of our income to the government--every penny.  When three Democrats gather, they will become a "troika."  Republicans are going to try to scare Americans McCainward with this kind of crap up until November 4.

But what are they going to do after that?

Surely this undignified, ridiculous drivel can't sustain the right during their underdog-days to come.  Can it?

I know this site doesn't supply the best medium for queries like this, but then again, that's kinda the problem.  I've tried googling "political discussion forum" and "liberal discussion forum," but the sites I find tend not to have a lot of deep discussion.  I like TPM, but obviously blogs serve a different purpose than forum threads.

Can anyone help me?

This article just appeared on USA Today (I saw it in the SPLC newsletter).  Basically, white supremacist groups are working on their image in order to form a better fit with the average American middle-class white bigot.

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Both ends of the American political spectrum are submerged in doubt, in lack of confidence over whether our elections are going to be conducted fairly.  The left has good reason for this, given the suspicious incidents and downright shenanigans in 2000 and 2004.  And on the right, age-old racial and socioeconomic anxieties among many whites (e.g. my grandmother's resentment toward the busloads of blacks who dare to travel to the polls cheaply, energized and in numbers) are being tapped more than ever by the rumormongerers, who scare the people with tales of 5,000,000 Mexicans who will vote fraudulently, or the ACORN volunteers who registered one man to vote a geschmillion times.

In the long term (say, by 2010), couldn't we counteract this with (1) increased civic participation in elections and (2) education about how voter registration and voting work?  Something bipartisan, with advisors in both parties?  Perhaps this could take the form of a group; it could consist of citizens who simply want to help make sure elections are fair.  Participants could volunteer in the processing of registrations and help maintain a supply of election workers.  Something like this would educate participants in the law.  Most importantly, it would ensure good lighting and good visibility--it would scatter a potential crime scene with lots of witnesses.

I know there are already programs in place that do parts of this.  But what we're doing now seems to be failing.

This just in on TPM's main page, under the title "Concision": "Shorter McCain Campaign: Obama's a black, socialist, Muslim terrorist homo."

I admit I haven't been following the robocall story closely, but is this fair?  How did the rest of you respond to this?

I love to snark on liberal fora as much as anyone, and Rachel Maddow's one-sided laugh attacks are my most highly treasured guilty pleasure.

But, man, I keep finding myself in situations where that sort of discourse is completely useless.  With my center-to-right parents.  With my conservative friends.  With my apolitical coworkers.  As much as I love to make fun of Walnuts and his druggy Skeletor trophy wife, I keep feeling as though that stuff is weakening my capacity for rational political discussion in the real world--a world in which there are tons of jokers on the right, hitting below the belt every single day and threatening the longevity of a nation in which partisan citizens can interact and get along as friends. 

No one has ever spat in my face or behaved in the ways recently unaired on YouTube and elsewhere; if they did, I'd have to sock someone in the eye.  But I live in one of the most Republican cities in Texas, and I intend to be understood here for who I am politically.  My Republican friends argue with me, but they manage to do so without talking about "slick Willie," "Bitchary" or "Barry Hussein Obama." 

And I don't mind standing up and saying that I can return that respect without losing my backbone.

I realize that this isn't as coherent as it could be.  But I've been thinking a lot about how best to navigate these tricky waters of political discussion, of mutual understanding among Americans with different outlooks.

Any thoughts on this?

An Oct. 14-15 Research 2000 poll has John Cornyn (R-TX) leading democrat Rick Noriega by a mere 6 points (50 to 44%, 4%MoE). 

This is the closest they've been in any poll since May.

Help Noriega climb to victory!  Cornyn is a wart on our state, and it's time to remove him.  Texan or not, you can help in several ways!

Are any of you becoming hysterically, arm-flailingly alarmed by the increasingly brazen behavior at Republican political events these days?  I sure am.  I'm a regular chicken.

I've had an Obama bumper sticker for about three weeks now, and so far no one has spoken a word to me about it, positive or negative.  But I check my tires now before I get in the car. 

One thing's for sure:  I'm going to start lifting weights again.  I also need to learn how to hold up in a fight.  Do you take lessons for that, or is it more or less intuitive?

Anybody else feeling as lily-livered as I am?  Let me hear about it. 

If anyone is impatient with my cowardly kind, I'd like to hear what you have to say, too.

If you haven't seen this already, check out what constitutes the Chaffey Community Republican Women's idea of humor (I saw this on Andrew Sullivan's blog).  How do you respond to this?  Do you respond to this?  I know my sister is going to love it when she sees it.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this. Here are some highlights:

John N Sarah tell ya Just what they think And they're not gonna blink And they're gonna fix this country Cause they're just like you N ole Hank

And perhaps the worst (are people going to dance to this?):

Now this old Union's got problems That is plain to see The Democrats bankrupted Fannie Mae N Freddie Mac Just like 1, 2, 3 The bankers didn't want to make all those bad loans, But Bill Clinton said you got to Now they want a bail out, what I'm talking about Is a Democrat liberal who doo

Now, Mr. Williams has been known to speak for the American everyman on many other occasions, but he sure has sold out, here.

Remember the narrowing Texas race for Senate? Rick Noriega vs. "Big Bad" John Cornyn? If the candidates' debate performance was any indication of the future, that race may narrow more. Noriega looked like he knew what he was talking about and where he wanted to go. Cornyn looked like a Bush rubber stamp. Here are some early reactions. The Houston Chronicle's coverage is pretty good. There's an AP article, too, but it's kind of awful. Noriega's campaign has taken and is running with Cornyn's embarrassing comment, "I support the status quo." At Burnt Orange Report, Karl-Thomas Musselman's response is that "tonight, I saw a Senator, and I'm not talking about John Cornyn." (By the way, there was a third-wheel Libertarian candidate there, too. Kind of awkward.)

I posted before about the Rasmussen poll a few days ago.  Noriega is behind Cornyn (R-TX) by a mere seven points now.  And Cornyn's terrible campaign is just begging to be defeated.  These are exciting times to be a Texan!

Karl-Thomas Musselman just posted a good synopsis of the situation as it stands today, in terms of campaign finances, TV ads, and the fact that the pollster.com senate race map changed Texas's color from red to pink!

Help us stir the pot!  Volunteer for the Noriega campaign!  Make phone calls!  (Surely they have ways of letting folks do this from home--I actually have no idea; I could be completely wrong.)  Do whatever you can!

Last night, Texas Democratic senate candidate Rick Noriega picked up an endorsement from Hillary Clinton.  Noriega, who is just seven points behind John Cornyn (R-TX) in the latest Rasmussen poll, is seriously outfunded by the incumbent.